Posted by By KINGSLEY EMEREUWA, Umuahia on
Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State has dismissed the claim by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that it is investigating the allegations of fraud levelled against President Olusegun Obasanjo and some top government officials over his personal letter to the President, saying that it is only an independent body that can guarantee an unbiased investigation into the matter.
Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State has dismissed the claim by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that it is investigating the allegations of fraud levelled against President Olusegun Obasanjo and some top government officials over his personal letter to the President, saying that it is only an independent body that can guarantee an unbiased investigation into the matter.
In a letter to the chairman of the commission Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, dated September 16, Kalu said that it was preposterous that the EFCC would deliberately embark on an exercise it knew was unrealistic and unattainable.
According to Kalu, the EFCC, aside from lacking the constitutional powers to investigate the President by virtue of the section 308 of the 1999 constitution, cannot " clinically investigate the same President who appointed you and picks the bills of the commission which you head," stating, in his words, that he who pays the piper calls the tune.
While the governor maintained that his letter to the President was a private and personal one that had no business with the EFCC, he noted that the decision of the President to refer the letter to the commission does not in anyway obliterate the import of the letter and has further succeeded in exposing "the intolerance and insincerity of our leaders".
"I would be shocked to the bones if you say you did not know that my letter to the President was a private and personal letter, and therefore has no business with your commission. That the President referred the letter to you does not in anyway, obviate or obliterate its import," the letter read.
The governor also stated that enquiries he made on his return from the United States of America where he had gone for the World Igbo Congress convention could not confirm claims by the EFCC boss that Ribadu called his house in Umuahia and London as the
Commission boss claimed, and added that Ribadu could have said all things he said to give the impression that he (Kalu) was evading your commission, when there was no compelling reason to do so."
While he said that the action of the EFCC on the matter was unconstitutional and smacked of deliberate deceit and sheer gimmickry, he also stated that it was even more ludicrous for the EFCC chairman to claim that his men quizzed the President, and sarcastically asked if anybody could stand before a moving train and come out alive.
The Abia governor, who said that he was at liberty to give the letter to the commission if he wanted to, also said that anything short of an independent investigation is a deliberate abuse of the constitution.
" I was surprised when I heard it in far away USA that the President had referred a personal letter I wrote to him to your commission for investigation. After all, I know the address of your office if I had wanted to refer the letter to your commission. I wish to state unequivocally that there is no need to appear before your commission when I know its assignment amounts to nothing but nullity."